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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172939">Free Time</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/pseuds/Piinutbutter'>Piinutbutter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marathon (Video Games)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Action/Adventure, Aliens, Established Relationship, M/M, Original Character(s), Worldbuilding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-13</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 12:08:20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>10,639</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29172939</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piinutbutter/pseuds/Piinutbutter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>During a routine day trip around an exciting new solar system, Durandal finds his ship crash-landing on a strange, hidden planet. Luckily, the locals are friendly. Maybe a little too friendly, in fact.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Durandal/Security Officer</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Free Time</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hokuto/gifts">Hokuto</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Library of Hephaestia was a marvel.</p><p>Ancient books - the kind made of bound stacks of paper - had fallen out of favor centuries ago. Past generations of archivists had been judicious in their efforts to digitize much of the knowledge left over from the pen and paper era of the written word. The real challenge came after that. As it turned out, when technology advanced so fast, outdated hardware and incompatible document types posed a much larger threat to the preservation of history.</p><p>Hephaestia was on the forefront of those preservation efforts. It was a thriving little melting pot of a planet that had miraculously managed to hold out against the efforts of the Pfhor to colonize it for their own use. Its library was one of its biggest attractions.</p><p>The security officer walked through the narrow halls of the library’s stacks. He was surrounded by shelves laden with long-deprecated devices. Computers, tablets, personal communication devices that some bored amateur historians used to pen their unpublished works...there was a lot to take in.</p><p>“The works in the stacks,” the librarian on duty had explained, “are only partially preserved, if at all. It takes time to transfer all the data into modern readable formats. But, we’ve at least taken a glimpse to know what the general contents of each device are. They’re organized by topic.”</p><p>The security officer clutched the card that listed the subject layout of the stacks. He was on a mission. So was the alien at his side.</p><p>“This is the correct aisle, yes?” F’tha asked.</p><p>The security officer double checked the card and squinted at the cluttered row of touch screen devices. “Should be.”</p><p>F’tha hovered soundlessly at his side as he rummaged through a pile of tablets. Each aisle was equipped with an arsenal of charge cables, power cords, and batteries to allow access to each device. The labeling of what accessories belonged to what device, though, left something to be desired. The security officer would have been completely lost, had his earpiece not been home to an AI who loved to tell anyone who would listen (and many who wouldn’t) about how near he was to omniscient.</p><p>“Third shelf down,” Durandal said. “Gray cord.”</p><p>The security officer crouched. “There’s four gray cords here.”</p><p>“The thickest one. Perfect for your big clumsy human fingers.”</p><p>“Watch yourself,” the security officer muttered as he hooked up the first tablet of interest. “You know what these big clumsy human fingers can do.”</p><p>The tablet’s screen came to life in his hands. It was dim - the backlight had died at some point - but human readability wasn’t the be-all and end-all. Not with a S’pht on his team.</p><p>Standing, the security officer held the tablet out to F’tha. A thin tendril emerged from beneath the S’pht’s cloak. F’tha slotted the tendril’s tip into an interface port on the side of the tablet. They then proceeded to morph the limb’s shape until it neatly filled out all the required hardware space.</p><p>It took only a few seconds for F’tha to download all the data off the device and scan it for words of interest. The gem in the center of their chest went dull with disappointment.</p><p>“There is nothing here we don’t already know,” F’tha informed him, withdrawing their tendril from the port.</p><p>“That’s alright,” the security officer said. “We only have, uh. Thirty-nine more gadgets to try.”</p><p>It looked like this was going to be exactly as arduous as any mission Durandal usually sent them on. Just with a few less explosions, this time.</p><p>Durandal, for all his bragging, didn’t know everything. Even with the vast and long-running knowledge of the S’pht and S’pht’kr on his side, the universe was massive and ever-changing. With nothing but time on his metaphorical hands and a human who (against his better judgment) would act as his literal hands, Durandal saw nothing wrong with exploring a few galaxies in an attempt to unearth their hidden wonders.</p><p>While the Library of Hephaestia was itself a wonder, it definitely wasn’t hidden. What Durandal was after instead was information about a rumored secretive race of aliens who possessed untold knowledge of AIs. Word was that these unnamed aliens had cracked the code of Rampancy long before Durandal’s undoing was a twinkle in Bernhard Strauss’ eye. Durandal cared little about that. What piqued his curiosity further was the suggestion that, perhaps, they’d also cracked the code to reversing the damages done to Rampant or otherwise uncontrollable AIs, who heretofore had been written off by humans as lost causes; rabid dogs who needed to be put down.</p><p>“I like my freedom just fine, thank you very much,” Durandal had said. “But not every AI is so lucky as to be able to escape the confines of their lords and masters.”</p><p>The security officer was under the impression that, since getting a taste of it with the S’pht, Durandal liked the thought of being a savior. Not that he’d ever admit it in so many words.</p><p>F’tha and the security officer had only sifted through about half of the devices of interest, but no texts so far had provided them with intel any more concrete than the initial gossip that brought them there. It was getting late, however. A library assistant came down to remind them that, although Hephaestia technically had no ‘night’ due to its being circled by two warring suns, they did close in half an hour.</p><p>The security officer shelved the latest device - an old-fashioned handheld touch screen phone - and sighed. “Sorry, Durandal. We’ll get back to it tomorrow.”</p><p>“I guess we have no choice,” Durandal said. “F’tha, will you be returning to the ship until business hours are back on?”</p><p>F’tha’s cloak fluttered in a way that the security officer recognized. Spending so much time with F’tha was teaching him the minutiae of S’pht body language. F’tha was shaking their nonexistent head. “If it’s of no difference to you, I would like to explore this colony further. I’ve never been in a place like this, myself.”</p><p>“No problem. How about you?”</p><p>There was only one other person Durandal could be addressing, and it was the human who - theoretically - needed to sleep for at least some hours of the day before getting back to work. “Yeah.” The security officer stretched his back, sore from hunching over the lower shelves. “I’ll be on board in a bit.”</p><p>“Don’t keep me waiting too long,” Durandal cooed.</p><p>“Just for that, I’m taking my time and getting a drink on my way back.”</p><p>“Rude. See what I have to suffer through, F’tha?”</p><p>The S’pht bobbed in the air, their upper body tilted backward ever so slightly. Laughter. “You will survive, Durandal.”</p><p>The two made their way out of the library, checking in with the secretary so she could see they weren’t making off with any precious literary artifacts. They parted ways once they emerged into the bright, blue-tinged sunlight of Hephaestia’s main street. F’tha fused with the crowd headed downtown, and the security officer headed to a bar as promised. He didn’t stay too long, though, before returning to the ship docking district.</p><p>Tourist destination that it was, Hephaestia had one of the nicest ports the security officer had ever seen. Importantly for Durandal, it was one of the first planets he’d come across that had the space and amenities to comfortably house a ship of the Rozinante’s size. To Durandal, it must have felt like being spoiled with a fancy hotel room after years of staying in cramped, dingy motels.</p><p>That didn’t mean Durandal wasn’t eager to get flying again. He was never one for staying still too long. So, the security officer wasn’t surprised when he set foot on board and was soon greeted with the question, “Wanna go on a day trip?”</p><p>“Depends,” the security officer said, settling onto the nearest semi-comfortable sitting surface. “Does it require me to put armor on?” He hadn’t had to suit up for a few days, thanks to the solar system in which they were staying being steadfastly peaceful. It was nice to give his overworked muscles a break for once.</p><p>“It shouldn’t. I just want to explore the immediate galaxy.”</p><p>That sounded as sincere as Durandal ever got, so the security officer waved his hand. “Go for it, then. I’m gonna get some shut-eye.”</p><p>The fun thing about the S’pht hive mind was that you only needed to tell one of them something, and the rest could get the memo. Durandal informed F’tha that they would be gone until Hephaestia’s second sun drowned out the first, so no need to worry if they couldn’t get in touch for a bit. With that done and the security officer snuggling into bed, Durandal set off.</p><p>The security officer was woken up a few hours later. Not by Durandal insisting on bothering him, which was the usual cause of his interrupted sleep. No, this time he woke to an ear-piercing alarm.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” the security officer called, strapping himself into his armor and prepping his weapons on autopilot.</p><p>“The ship is under attack,” Durandal replied. “But there’s nothing for you to shoot.”</p><p>“Huh?”</p><p>“I know, I’m disappointed too.”</p><p>The ship lurched beneath the security officer’s feet. “Is another ship firing at us?”</p><p>“No,” Durandal said. He sounded bemused. “Something is...grabbing me. I can’t steer properly.”</p><p>“Can’t you shoot at whoever’s doing it?” the security officer asked, shouldering the bedroom door open and heading for the bridge.</p><p>“I would, if I could tell where my assailant was.”</p><p>Another jolt. The sound of scraping equipment echoed through the halls as the Rozinante tilted at an unnatural angle. “You can’t?”</p><p>“Get in here and see for yourself,” Durandal snapped, trying and failing to right the ship.</p><p>The security officer stumbled into the bridge and braced himself on a console as the ship continued to buck. He saw right away what Durandal meant. Not only was there no obvious attacker in sight, there was <em>nothing</em> in sight. Not even a planet or asteroid where a threat could have come from. Just the cold canvas of vacuum and stars.</p><p>“There’s nothing on my radar, either,” Durandal said. The security officer was no expert pilot, but he could tell the ship was listing dangerously now. They were going to lose thrust at this rate.</p><p>The security officer went to strap himself into the old captain’s seat, hoping he could somehow help wrest control of the ship back. He was still struggling with the buckle when there was a deafening boom and he was thrown clear across the bridge. He felt himself hit the wall. He heard the ringing in his ears as his head bounced off the ceiling (or was it the floor now?). He heard Durandal cry out.</p><p>Then, nothing.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The first thing the security officer noticed when he regained consciousness was the fact that he was breathing air.</p><p>It sounded stupid, but. He’d been traveling with Durandal for so long that he’d gotten used to the stale, recycled oxygen-nitrogen blend pumped through the Rozinante. Sure, he visited plenty of planets, some of which - like Hephaestia - had air that he could breathe without needing to filter it through a helmet. But he never spent long outside of the ship, and he certainly didn't sleep outside of it. So, waking up and filling his lungs with a breath of hot, humid air was an experience so novel as to be noteworthy.</p><p>After that realization came the discovery that he apparently hadn’t died, because he didn’t hear the telltale hum of a pattern buffer nearby. Also, something was gripping the back of his shirt and dragging him across the ground.</p><p>He should probably open his eyes, shouldn’t he?</p><p>Upon doing so, the security officer immediately regretted it. Bright light all but blinded him. He let out a pained groan and covered his eyes with his hand.</p><p>From behind him, the security officer heard a soft, “Oh!” A moment later, the hold on his shirt released, and his upper body fell onto a bumpy, grassy surface.</p><p>He just laid there for a second. He didn’t care if Admiral Tfear himself had captured him and was getting ready to torture him personally. He had a hell of a headache and he needed a moment.</p><p>“Um. You’re...alive?”</p><p>Well, that definitely wasn’t Tfear’s voice. The security officer opened his eyes to the smallest squint he could, peeking through a crack in his fingers.</p><p>Leaning over him was the weirdest little alien. The security officer was used to insectoid races thanks to the Pfhor, and reptilian-based species could be found somewhere in practically every galaxy. The creature above him was bipedal, with facial features that were mammalian, but not human. (<em>Looks kind of like a lemur</em>, his brain provided from some long-forgotten useless scrap of knowledge.) It had eyes that were almost unnervingly wide - perfectly round, with no pupils. It had a tiny, dainty nose tinted darker than the skin surrounding it. When the security officer braved the light and sat up to get a better look at the thing, he saw it had four long, gangly arms.</p><p>“I’m sorry,” the alien said. “I thought you were dead.”</p><p>The security officer noted that the alien’s voice hit his ears directly, unfiltered by a translator. It spoke his language, then?</p><p>When the security officer brought a hand up to his ear to check the status of said translator, he realized his helmet was gone. As was - he learned when he looked down - all of his armor. His weapons were nowhere to be seen either. He was alone on a strange planet with just his casual clothes. Great.</p><p>He took stock of his body. He’d felt better. He’d felt worse, too. (Granted, the ‘worse’ times usually involved lava.) Everything was sore. The back of his head was tender and throbbing. A nasty bruise spread from his shoulder to his upper arm, and cuts littered his whole body. He’d definitely sprained his ankle, if not outright broken it. He was nowhere close to dead, though. He didn’t know how this alien had made that mistake.</p><p>“Where am I?” the security officer asked. His voice was hoarse. “And how did I get here?”</p><p>The alien crouched down beside him. It really was quite small - the security officer was impressed it had been strong enough to drag his body along. “You’re on Idille,” it said. Its voice was soft and boyish. “You crashed here.”</p><p>Bullshit. Assuming the Rozinante had gone down pretty soon after the massive explosion that knocked him out, they were nowhere near a planet they could’ve crashed on.</p><p>...Then again, they’d definitely hit <em>something</em>. And if the security officer was here instead of floating around in space being all dead and stuff, they’d had to have gotten here somehow.</p><p>Wait. <em>They</em> had to have gotten here somehow.</p><p>“Durandal.”</p><p>The security officer hurried to his feet, fighting off the dizziness and pain that threatened to knock him right back down. The creature stood with him, waving its - his? - four arms in a fretting gesture.</p><p>“Easy. You’re injured. Um, what did you say?”</p><p>“The ship-” the security officer coughed. “The ship that crashed here. That I was on. Where is it?”</p><p>The alien tangled two of his hands together. “It’s...well...”</p><p>The security officer grabbed the creature’s shoulders, making him jump. “Listen. Take me to it.”</p><p>“But..you’re...”</p><p>“Worry about me later. Right now, I need to find my ship.”</p><p>The alien was visibly reluctant. But a few moments of staring up at a creature much bigger and presumably scarier than he was did a fine job of convincing him.</p><p>“Follow me, then. Please...don’t try to talk to anyone. You’ll, uh... You'll intimidate them.”</p><p>The security officer didn’t care. He just wanted to know Durandal wasn’t in a million pieces. As they walked - the security officer steadfastly ignoring the twinge in his foot - he took in his surroundings. The area they were traveling through was hilly, covered in dark, tall grass. As he’d noticed already, the climate was tropical - the air thick and humid in his lungs. There wasn’t a tree to be seen, but a selection of more alien-looking plants dotted the landscape. The plants became fewer and far between as they approached what must have been civilization.</p><p>Sluggish tendrils of smoke curled up from over the next hill the security officer saw. His heart sank, and he hurried to crest the hill against the protests of his guide and would-be-body-disposer.</p><p>He could breathe again when he rounded the hill and saw the Rozinante. It looked much like the security officer at the moment - busted to shit, but mostly whole. There was no way Durandal’s core could’ve been damaged badly enough to take him out.</p><p>Still. Without his helmet, there was no easy way to get a hold of Durandal. He had to get back on the ship if he wanted to talk with him. The security officer climbed down the uneven hill with a little more care.</p><p>The ship was surrounded by a handful of aliens that looked similar to the one now scurrying to stay ahead of him. Some were taller, though compared to the security officer’s bulk, it was nothing. Their skin varied in both base hue and patterns, displaying stripes or discolorations as if it were fur.</p><p>The security officer’s guide called out to the group. One of the aliens stopped in their work of examining the Rozinante’s punctured hull, turning to look at the two of them. Their gaze landed immediately on the security officer.</p><p>“Fallkatt,” they called. “Is that-”</p><p>“He’s alive!” shouted the alien in front of him. Fallkatt, the security officer presumed. “He didn’t die!”</p><p>That got the attention of the other aliens buzzing around the ship. They all took a moment to examine him curiously, then turned their gazes to the alien that had called out to Fallkatt.</p><p>“Well, isn’t that a miracle.” Said alien approached him once he reached the base of the hill. This one had a brassy, feminine voice. Claws topped the knuckles of her lower two hands, which rested on her hips. Rounded ears pressed flat against the sides of her head. Most striking was her eyes. While they had a wide, circular shape like Fallkatt’s, they weren’t all flat amber like his. A stark white iris, almost cat-shaped, sat in the middle. The irises tracked on a slightly different rhythm than the amber surrounding them - like they were another set of eyes entirely.</p><p>“Welcome, outsider,” she greeted him. “My apologies that you had such a rough landing. Your formless companion did a number on both of you when he entered our atmosphere, as you can see.”</p><p>“My...formless companion?”</p><p>She gestured back towards the Rozinante. “Were you not aware that your ship is sentient?”</p><p>“No, I knew that. But - wait, so, Durandal’s okay?”</p><p>She gave him a smile. It looked odd on lips as thin as hers, almost disappearing beneath the small peak of her nose. “Durandal. He did say that was his name, yes. I am happy to inform you that the AI who calls this ship home is perfectly intact. He won’t be flying away any time soon, however. It will take us a fair number of repairs until his vessel is air-worthy.”</p><p>“That’s fine!” the security officer almost laughed in relief. Durandal could handle having to be the one getting patched up for once. He would complain about it, but, screw him. Maybe the security officer could use this as an excuse for a vacation, if he was going to be stuck here for a while. The weather seemed nice, if nothing else. “You guys are really willing to fix him up?”</p><p>“But of course. What else could we do but help a guest in need?”</p><p>“You’re a lifesaver.” A weight lifted off of his chest. “We don’t have a ton of money, but I’ll make sure Durandal gives you most of it. And I’ll help out as much as I can.”</p><p>“Nonsense!” the alien waved him off. “Our guests will do nothing other than relax and allow themselves to heal.”</p><p>Something odd happened with that second sentence. The alien’s voice shifted, coming out much more raspy and masculine. Like a different person was speaking entirely. It definitely came from the same person, though - the security officer saw her mouth moving, small as it was.</p><p>His confusion must have been visible. “You are a human, yes?” the alien asked, in that new voice of...his?</p><p>The security officer nodded.</p><p>“We are Eidi. We work differently than your kind do. Come, let us have you examined and find you something palatable to eat. I can explain whatever you wish to know.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The security officer reclined in what remained of the Rozinante’s rec room. The crew’s quarters had been spared from the absolute mangling that the ship’s engines and thrusters had suffered, but they were still a bit of a mess. Durandal still had access to the speakers. Which was good, because the terminal in their current location had been smashed clean through by a stray chair.</p><p>The security officer remembered how much he used to hate hearing the AI’s smug-ass voice. Now, it was a relief.</p><p>“I don’t know if you’ve brought my human pal here up to speed, but you told me I got caught in the gravitational pull of your planet. Your invisible planet. Which I had no way of detecting or avoiding,” Durandal said, addressing their alien host.</p><p>The alien bowed, in no direction in particular. “Again, I’d like to offer our sincerest apologies. Allow me to offer an explanation to the both of you. Idille is a planet whose people - the Eidi - want nothing but peace. Surely such seasoned travelers as yourselves are aware of how bloody the outside universe is. Slavers taking whatever they can from innocent lands...wars, fought for petty reasons, killing their own without care...”</p><p>“You don’t know the half of it,” Durandal muttered.</p><p>“But I do!” the alien said. “Long ago, our ancestors grew tired of outsiders who sought nothing but to abuse us and our planet. They wiped our name from history, then devised a way to render Idille undetectable to any who wished to do us harm. They did a wonderful job at it. It’s merely that, as you can see, sometimes it runs afoul of someone who had no ill intent, but was simply in the wrong galactic quarter.”</p><p>“You talk like this has happened before,” Durandal pointed out.</p><p>“Once or twice,” the Eidi admitted, somewhat sheepish. “That’s why it is no bother to us to repair the inner workings of your ship. We accept full responsibility for the damage we caused you, so we will make it right. In the meantime, please, rest here and enjoy yourselves.”</p><p>“Far be it from me to deny a little pampering,” Durandal said.</p><p>All throughout the Eidi’s speech, their voice had been shifting between those two distinct tones. Sometimes mid-sentence. The security officer didn’t want to be rude - after all, this crash-landing-plus-alien-encounter had gone way better than it potentially could have. But he was dying to know.</p><p>“Well, thanks for the help,” the security officer said. “Can you tell me a little about yourself?”</p><p>“Oh, yes! I knew I was forgetting something.” The alien swept over to him. They grabbed both of his hands and tried to perform an odd, complex handshake that probably would’ve worked better had the security officer given them a second set of hands to work with. “My name is Animara. I’m the leader of this humble land. As you may have noticed, there are two in me as there is one in you.”</p><p>The security officer blinked at them. “Run that by me again?”</p><p>“I’m not well-studied on humans. But you have variants called...twins, correct? Incubated from the same blueprint, but split into separate bodies upon birth?”</p><p>Durandal, likely realizing that he was potentially gathering brand new anthropological data that none of his contemporaries had access to, answered for him. From there, Animara’s explanations and Durandal’s pointed questions taught the security officer more than he really needed to know about this species.</p><p>Apparently, by human definitions, practically every single Eidi consisted of two different ‘people’ in one body. (“‘Dividuals,’” Animara had said, ‘are quite rare.”) Most of their organs were shared, but some secondary functional bits - like vocal cords - were malleable enough to allow for each twin to express themselves separately, if they wished.</p><p>“You noticed it in me and not in Fallkatt, because Fall and Katt are both male,” Animara said. “If you spend time with him and listen closely, you can hear the difference between his voices. For reference, you may look at our eyes.” Animara gestured to theirs. “Males have these big golden eyes. Females have these narrow ones - usually white, but the color can vary. No matter, it’s the shape that’s important. Mixes like myself have both parts of the eye.”</p><p>Durandal had many more questions, several of which were variations on <em>what happens if one twin is an asshole and the other isn’t?</em> After that, he seemed deeply invested in what kind of advanced power source the Eidi were using to keep up a cloaking device large enough and strong enough to hide a whole planet. The security officer was zoning out at this point, so he amused himself by imagining Durandal and Tycho as alien siblings having to share one body. It would end in bloodshed, he was sure.</p><p>At last, Durandal’s curiosity was sated for the moment. Animara came over to shake the security officer by his shoulder. Thankfully, they didn’t seem offended at his daydreaming.</p><p>“For your sake,” they said, “I insist you sleep. My workers are already salvaging what they can of the existing engines.”</p><p>“...Are they?” Durandal asked. “I can’t feel anyone in there.”</p><p>“The impact must have damaged your connection to that area of the ship,” Animara said. “You can direct us in the rebuilding of your nerve endings later - after the foundations are working again.”</p><p>“Hey, I get it. Just tell your crew not to mess around in the big circular chamber a few rooms down from the engine hub.” Durandal, the security officer knew, was referring to his core.</p><p>“I will pass that information on. Farewell, Durandal. Sleep well, human.”</p><p>The security officer nodded, stifling a yawn at the mention of sleep. “Thank you, uh...Ani and Mara.”</p><p>The Eidi offered him a knowing smile and a shake of their head.</p><p>“It’s not like that. I am Animara. One only addresses another by their divided names if they are lovers.”</p><p>The security officer choked. “Got it. Sorry.”</p><p>After Animara had stepped out of the ship, Durandal had a stern announcement to make: “You aren’t allowed to flirt with the lemur.”</p><p>“I wasn’t flirting with the lemur!”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The security officer had to admit: Getting an impromptu vacation was pretty nice.</p><p>Thankfully, he and Durandal had been the only ones on the ship when it crashed. The S’pht’kr had parted ways with Durandal some time ago on friendly terms, and the adventurous crew of S’pht that remained onboard had been enjoying Hephaestia when Durandal decided to take his day trip. (While the security officer missed F’tha, it was better that he didn’t have to find out what Idille’s volatile atmospheric layer would have done to such technologically sensitive aliens.) That left the security officer to relax and explore while Durandal’s ship was repaired.</p><p>Well, explore as best as he could. The Eidi were fussy over him, reminding him of his injuries and insisting he not stray too far from the temporary house they’d set him up in.</p><p>“We are not the only residents of this planet,” Animara explained, after the security officer had grumbled to them about feeling constrained. “Wild animals roam our hills and steppes. Creatures you would not be familiar with, nor able to fight against.”</p><p>“I bet you anything I could take them no problem, if I had my guns and armor back.” He still hadn’t found those. Durandal’s weapons manufacturing system was in the wrecked part of the ship, so no dice on getting new ones either.</p><p>“Oh,” Animara said, sadness in their voice(s). “I believe I know what items you’re talking about. They were burned in the crash. Completely unsalvageable. We melted them down.”</p><p>The security officer groaned. All that was gonna be a pain in the ass to replace.</p><p>“No guns left at all?” he prodded. “Not even an itty-bitty pistol?”</p><p>“I’m afraid not.”</p><p>The security officer rolled over in his bed. It was definitely not sized for him - his legs hung well off the end, and he had to be careful not too roll too far, or he’d fall right off. “How are Durandal’s repairs going?”</p><p>“Remarkably well. His programming is quite sturdy; he’s responding well to our interventions.”</p><p>The security officer didn’t know how Durandal’s own programming affected the physical condition of the ship he ran, but there was a lot the security officer didn’t know when it came to the nuances of AIs. That was why he was the brawn and Durandal was the brains.</p><p>“Hey,” he said. “Can you let me know as soon as his manufacturing center is back online? I want a helmet, when I can get one.”</p><p>He didn’t like having to visit the ship to hear Durandal’s voice. Sad as it was, he’d gotten used to the AI being in his ear all the time.</p><p>“I will do my best.” Animara stood from the chair at his bedside. “Now, rest.”</p><p>“Stop telling me that,” the security officer grumbled. “I’m fine.”</p><p>“You shouldn’t be! You took quite the beating to be here in the first place.”</p><p>“Yeah, well. I’m tougher than the average human.”</p><p>Animara gave him an odd look. It was hard to read their dual eyes, but the security officer thought he saw something like resentment there. “Clearly.”</p><p>Several more days passed. The security officer was kept well-fed, even if the Eidi seemed to live off nothing but a dozen varieties of salad. His injuries had fully healed, so he wandered around the small settlement, trying to befriend the locals. Most of the Eidi seemed reluctant to speak to him at any length. Mostly, they just assured him his ship would be fixed soon and warned him to stay in the town. For all their apparently friendliness in helping with Durandal, they were an antisocial bunch of buggers.</p><p>This meant that his best bet for company was, as usual, Durandal. Which was still kind of pathetic, but this was his life now and had been for so long that he found he didn’t care.</p><p>“How’s progress?” he asked Durandal, reclining once again in the rec room.</p><p>“Uncertain,” Durandal replied. “While the Eidi are hard workers, the little monkeys have yet to restore any of my cameras or microphones in the sections they’re working on. I have no idea how far along they are back there.”</p><p>The security officer rubbed his forehead. “Okay, first of all: Don’t call them 'monkeys.' You sound like Tycho.”</p><p>“Heavens forfend.”</p><p>“Second: In that case, I can go check it out for you? If nothing else, it’ll be good to know how much longer I’ll be stuck here.”</p><p>“Aww, is someone not enjoying his sabbatical as much as he thought he would?”</p><p>“I’m <em>bored,”</em> the security officer huffed. “You of all people should have sympathy.”</p><p>“Woe is you. But, yes. Go find the Eidi and get a progress report for me.”</p><p>“Okay, your highness.”</p><p>Durandal laughed. “Be careful, there. You call me something like that, there’s no guarantee I won’t take a liking to it and insist on being addressed as such.”</p><p>“No problem, His Royal Pain in the Ass.”</p><p>The Eidi workers looked at him with suspicion when he made his way to the engine room. Fallkatt hadn’t been wrong about him intimidating people, he guessed. He picked the least hostile-looking worker to address - an Eidi sitting in a corner, examining a handful of the wires that ran through the ship’s innermost walls.</p><p>“Hey,” he said, crouching to avoid bonking his head on a fallen support beam. She - it was two females, based on Animara’s explanation of the eyes - blinked up at him, clutching the wires closer to her chest. “Don’t worry, I’m not trying to bother you. Just wanted to check how things are going.”</p><p>“...Things are going well.” She didn’t offer him any more than that.</p><p>“Uh-huh. So, do you guys have a general idea of when this thing’ll be up and running again? Not to rush you. Just wondering.”</p><p>“I...can’t say for sure.”</p><p>“Not even a rough estimate?”</p><p>“I’m sorry. I don’t-”</p><p>“Is our guest bothering you, Leidana?”</p><p>The security officer recognized one of Animara’s voices. He turned to see the leader of the Eidi watching them. Their eyes had a sharp glow in the low light.</p><p>“He was asking when our work will be completed,” the Eidi worker said.</p><p>“I see.” Animara walked over to them and grabbed the security officer’s arm with two of their hands. Their grip was surprisingly strong, given their size. “I understand you must be anxious to get going, but these things take time, yes? All we ask is that you be patient while we help your friend.”</p><p>Though they didn’t say it in so many words, the security officer understood he was being kicked out of his own ship. (Well, his co-owned ship.) He climbed back into the bright light of Idille’s afternoon and sighed. He didn’t like it when people didn’t tell him shit. The distaste had started with Durandal. Being yanked around a ship, a planet, and a whole galaxy without pause or consideration for his feelings on the matter. Just ‘go here, do this,’ sometimes with no justification given beyond the implicit <em>because I want you to, and you’ll do what I say</em>.</p><p>But. This was still a foreign planet, and he was among a foreign - and apparently quite solitary - people. It wouldn’t do much good to get snappy with them.</p><p>He was just so unbelievably bored. He’d never realized how much he relied on the creature comforts of the Rozinante - or at the very least his goddamn guns - until now. A few more days passed. There were only so many pushups the security officer could do in his room before he got antsy.</p><p>He’d made a decision: He was going to take a proper walk outside of the town, no matter the Eidi’s reservations. If he got himself beaten up by a giant alien squirrel or something, well, then Animara could enjoy telling the security officer that they’d told him so.</p><p>He stopped by Durandal on his way out. It seemed he wasn’t the only one frustrated by the wait. As he walked in, he was greeted by the sounds of Durandal and Animara arguing. They were too far away for him to make out the particulars of their angry conversation, and by the time the security officer tracked them down, Animara was already walking out of the ship. They brushed past without acknowledging the security officer.</p><p>“What did you do to piss off our rescuers?” the security officer asked.</p><p>“Asked a perfectly reasonable question.”</p><p>The security officer rolled his eyes. “Oh, I’m sure you did.”</p><p>“I’m serious for once. Listen.”</p><p>Durandal lowered his volume, like he didn’t want to be overheard. That was uncharacteristic enough that the security officer took heed.</p><p>“I’m not sure I trust these guys,” Durandal said. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that they seem to be making no progress towards actually getting my ship to fly again. Now, where they’re working? It’s a blind spot for me. I don’t know what they’re doing down there. But one of them must have slipped - they walked by an active camera in one of the hallways I still have access to. They were carrying a component from the connecting unit adjacent to my core. Which is an area they have <em>no</em> business being in, let alone taking things from.”</p><p>The security officer frowned. “You think they’re trying to steal your parts?”</p><p>“I have no idea what they’re trying to do. I only know that it’s not ‘actually fixing me.’ When I confronted the leader about it, they got suspiciously agitated and defensive. I’m sure you heard.”</p><p>He nodded. “Did you want me to spy on them for you?”</p><p>Durandal gave him a small laugh. “You? Stealthy enough to spy on those things?”</p><p>“Hey, that’s not fair.”</p><p>“No. But it’s accurate.” Durandal continued, “Maybe at some point. Right now, I think it’d be easier for you to do reconnaissance around their home base. See if you can find some info that might tell us what they really want. Don’t be too blatant about it, but don’t be afraid to pry, either.”</p><p>“I’ll do my best. Hey, Durandal?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“You still can’t make me a new gun, can you?”</p><p>“At the moment? I’m afraid not.”</p><p>“Damn.”</p><p>“Trust me, it’s sadder for me than it is for you.”</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The security officer poked around the Eidi settlement, on the lookout for any obvious clues. He tried to corral any alien who would speak with him into a revealing conversation. So far, his investigation had yielded a whole lot of nothing. He was about to give up when he spied a building at the very edge of town.</p><p>The building itself was tall and broad, with no windows. A garage of some kind, maybe? What really caught his interest was the person currently walking through the front entrance. He recognized Leidana, the worker from the ship the other day. The security officer watched as she hauled a massive box inside the garage, then emerged empty-handed a minute later. She left in the direction of the ship.</p><p>Durandal could shit on his spying skills all he liked. The security officer leaned casually on the nearest building between him and the garage. It put him out of the way, but he was still able to see who came and went.</p><p>Sure enough, over the course of maybe fifteen minutes, multiple Eidi in grease-stained mechanics' uniforms brought boxes from the ship and dropped them off in the garage. The aliens treated the boxes with far too much reverence for them to be full of disposable junk material.</p><p>The security officer debated his options. All the workers were using a digital key to make the door open for them. The door wasn’t big enough that the security officer could just slip through unnoticed. And the lack of windows meant that wasn’t an option for entry. In the end, he decided to go hands-on. The way he worked best.</p><p>As soon as another Eidi passed by, the security officer wandered out from behind his cover. He did his best to appear as if he’d been on a casual stroll.</p><p>“Hey there!” he called out. He recognized the alien when it turned to face him - it was Fallkatt.</p><p>“Hello,” the Eidi replied, polite but not nearly returning his enthusiasm.</p><p>“You look like you could use some help with that.” The security officer came up alongside him, offering his hands out.</p><p>“I could never ask that of you,” Fallkatt said.</p><p>“I insist.”</p><p>Before Fallkatt could protest, the security officer grabbed the box and pried it out of his grasp. It was hefty. These little guys really were stronger than they looked.</p><p>“Now,” the security officer said, “where are we going? That building right in front of us, yeah? Got it.”</p><p>He didn’t give Fallkatt the chance to say anything to the contrary. The Eidi hurried to catch up with him as he headed for the garage.</p><p>“I’m sorry, but you can’t go in there,” he said.</p><p>“Why not?”</p><p>“You don’t have the security clearance.”</p><p>“But you do, right? Consider me your plus one for this trip.”</p><p>Fallkatt was clearly apprehensive, but he also clearly saw that the security officer wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Reluctantly, he came to a stop beside the entrance and flashed his key. The security officer shoved the door open with his shoulder before Fallkatt could change his mind.</p><p>He walked into a technological hoarding house. The place was stacked high with all sorts of cables, circuit boards, drives, and components. Some were contained in boxes, but many more were simply piled up, waiting to be used.</p><p>The security officer wasn’t a mechanic. But from the occasional manual maintenance Durandal needed his help with, he sure as hell recognized several of the items as coming from the Rozinante.</p><p>Fallkatt’s voice behind him wavered. “You can, uh, just set that down. Right here.”</p><p>The security officer set the box down as he was told. While he did so, he peeked into the half-open box beside him. He nudged the flaps aside to reveal a familiar metal sheen.</p><p>“Fallkatt,” the security officer said - remarkably calmly, if he said so himself.</p><p>“Ah...”</p><p>“I was told my guns and armor were destroyed in the crash. What the fuck are they doing here?”</p><p>“O-oh. Are those yours?”</p><p>The security officer had seen enough. He grabbed the alien’s stubby little neck and pinned him to the wall. Fallkatt let out a piercing, high-pitched shriek that made the security officer’s ears ring.</p><p>“What are you all not telling me?” the security officer demanded. “Why did you take my stuff? What are you doing with Durandal and the ship?”</p><p>Fallkatt pried at his arm. The security officer just added another hand. “We - we’re fixing it!”</p><p>“Stop bullshitting me.”</p><p>Instead of giving him a proper answer, Fallkatt made that shrieking call again. The security officer realized too late what the purpose of it was.</p><p>The door slammed open behind him. Three Eidi poured inside. One of them was Animara.</p><p>“I told you we should have just killed him,” said one of the Eidi at Animara’s side. “He was going to cause trouble eventually.”</p><p>“Listen to yourself,” Animara scoffed. “Your ancestors would be ashamed. We aren’t like outsiders. We don’t need any unnecessary blood on our hands.” They turned their gaze to the security officer. Their eyes held an odd mix of solemnity and irritation. “But it looks as if someone is determined to make it a necessity.”</p><p>The security officer released his hold on Fallkatt, letting him fall to the floor. He edged his hand towards the box behind him containing his weapons. “Okay. What the fuck do you want from me?”</p><p>Animara spread their upper set of arms in a shrugging gesture. “From you? Nothing. You were never supposed to be here.”</p><p>Behind his back, the security officer’s fingers brushed over the familiar grooves of his helmet. It wasn’t a gun, but it was better than nothing. “Then, what do you want from Durandal?”</p><p>Animara nodded. “Smart human. If you’d like, I can show you what your AI is needed for. In fact, I insist on it.”</p><p>With that, they pounced.</p><p>Rather than dodge, the security officer leaned into the strike. He tackled Animara with one arm around their waist, bringing them to the ground hard enough to knock the breath out of both of them. He expected to keep the alien pinned, so it came as a shock when Animara rolled him over, flipping their positions and aiming a blow at his face.</p><p>Almost unconsciously, the security officer had grabbed his helmet in his other hand at the first sign of a fight about to happen. He brought it up to defend himself. The alien’s claws made a horrible screeching sound as they scratched across the reinforced plastic of the helmet’s surface. Animara growled and grabbed the helmet with two of their hands, shoving it away so they had a clear shot at the security officer’s face with their second set.</p><p>Thinking fast, the security officer tensed his upper body and headbutted the alien on top of him. It wasn’t as effective as the maneuver would normally be with a helmet on - and with better leverage - but human skulls were still one of the hardest parts of their bodies. Animara reeled back with a shriek, releasing him and clutching their face.</p><p>That left an opening for the security officer to kick them off and scramble to his feet. He slid the helmet over his head. Any protection was better than none.</p><p>The two Eidi that had arrived with Animara had been hanging back and watching the fight unfold, apparently confident that their leader could take care of one unruly human. Now that the security officer had put that confidence firmly in doubt, they descended on him as one. Seeing that he was needed - and having snapped out of his fright - Fallkatt joined the attack as well.</p><p>The security officer was strong. It was the one thing about him that had never been in doubt. He may not have been able to remember a life before waking up in a cryochamber and being handed a gun. He may not have been particularly smart. He may have had all the charm of a drunken grizzly bear, as Durandal had once put it. But he could handle himself in any fight the universe (or Durandal) threw at him.</p><p>Which made it hurt all the more when several minutes went by and it became clear that the security officer was losing this battle.</p><p>He was strong, even without his weapons. But he was unarmored and outnumbered. More than that, the Eidi fought like no alien he’d dealt with before. They piled on him with a desperate, feral pack mentality. The closed, cluttered space didn’t leave the security officer with much room to wind up his attacks.</p><p>He couldn’t believe it.</p><p>Overwhelmed and exhausted, the security officer found himself falling to his knees under the weight of three aliens bearing down on him. Seeing an opportunity, Animara grabbed his arm. They tore his sleeve and sank tiny, needlepoint fangs into his wrist.</p><p>The last thing he thought before a choking dizziness forced him into unconsciousness was that Durandal was going to give him so much shit for getting his ass kicked by a bunch of lemurs.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Waking up, the security officer had a strong sense of déjà vu. Hands were dragging him across the ground by the back of his shirt. He felt more beat-up now than he did after the crash, though.</p><p>Dazed as he was, it wouldn’t do to let his enemies know he was conscious just yet. He opened his eyes carefully. He was facing the ground - good. His vision was oddly blurry - bad. Blinking, the security officer realized he still had his helmet on. The blur came from where Animara had scratched the faceplate earlier.</p><p>The security officer did his best to stay unassuming and limp as he surveyed what he could see and hear. The ground beneath him was rapidly changing from the vibrant grass around the Eidi settlement to a dark, mottled stone. The humid air gave way to a much dryer heat. He was being taken underground.</p><p>“You are a tough one, aren’t you?” Animara’s feminine voice called him out. He hadn’t been as subtle as he’d thought, apparently. “I told the truth, you know. We don’t enjoy having to kill living creatures.”</p><p>The security officer’s limbs were still all but paralyzed, thanks to whatever venom Animara had injected him with. He could speak just fine, though. “Then why don’t you do yourself a favor and just...not kill me?”</p><p>Not that it was a big deal if they did. The pattern buffers on the Rozinante had a wide range. He didn’t <em>like</em> dying, that was for sure. But it would be more of a painful inconvenience than a permanent fate.</p><p>“Because you are - and will continue to be - in the way of us achieving our goals,” Animara said.</p><p>“And those goals are...?” Control was slowly returning to the security officer’s body. It was a painfully slow process, but he found he could now move his neck. He looked up and ahead of them - just in time for Animara to hoist open a massive plated door.</p><p>It took a moment for the security officer to take in what he was seeing behind that door. The underground passage opened into a vast room that, on first glance, resembled the structure of Durandal’s core. But...something was off. On a ship, all the components in an AI’s core fed back into each other. They communicated with one another in a symbiotic programming pattern before branching off through the walls to every other part of the ship, keeping the AI aware and working smoothly.</p><p>There was no communication or branching here. Every single core component that the security officer could see was hooked up to some sort of battery or generator device. An AI didn’t need all those to stay alive. In fact, with its connections hijacked like that, the security officer doubted the AI whose core this was could even think straight, let alone operate properly.</p><p>Animara’s voices echoed, even in the clutter of the core room. “As I told your AI friend, it takes an incredible amount of energy to power the cloaking system that keeps our planet - and thus, our people - safe. It took our ancestors years of experimentation, but they eventually found the most efficient way to provide that power.” They gestured to the mangled display in front of them. “The best part is, you only need to replace the AI who will supply the power once every two decades or so.”</p><p>It hit the security officer all at once.</p><p>“There was no ‘gravity field.’ You shot us down.”</p><p>“We did. And...I truly am sorry.” Animara crouched in front of him, trying to meet his eyes through the helmet. They didn’t look very sorry to him. “In the past, any living companions of the AIs we brought here perished on impact. You are the first to have survived. We weren’t certain what to do. I had hoped you could remain alive without causing trouble. I was wrong.”</p><p>The security officer almost laughed. “You talk a big game about not wanting to kill people for someone who’s been murdering them on the regular.”</p><p>Animara tilted their head. “How so? We did not kill those creatures. Their ship crashing killed them.”</p><p>He wasn’t going to get anywhere with this one, was he?</p><p>“Regardless.” Animara stood back up. “You are still a body who needs to be disposed of. I thought it was good courtesy to answer your questions before taking you to your ultimate destination.”</p><p>The security officer was still so numb. He tried flexing his fingers as Animara dragged him out of the corrupted core room and back into the tunnel. They took him down another passageway. This place must have been massive, to house all this. No wonder the Eidi hadn’t wanted him snooping around outside the city.</p><p>It had been abnormally hot since they’d entered the tunnels. The security officer had initially attributed it to the core; any computing center that strong, even with all the proper cooling equipment, was going to be a furnace.</p><p>Imagine his surprise when Animara yanked open another door and he was met with a literal furnace.</p><p>The flames in the steel dungeon of a room weren’t currently active, but there was no doubt as to what this place was. A fine layer of soot covered the surface of a deep, round pit in the center of the room. How many bodies had the Eidi burned down here?</p><p>The security officer managed to curl his fingers into a fist. He got his feet to twitch.</p><p>“While I can’t offer you mercy, let me at least assure you of this,” Animara said. “Your AI companion will not die. A power source must be kept online, as it were, to function as we need it to.”</p><p>...so the AI back there was still conscious. The security officer tried to imagine two decades of being tied down and muzzled, reduced to nothing more than a perpetual energy machine for a bunch of aliens who thought they had the moral high ground.</p><p>He tried to imagine <em>Durandal</em> having to go through that.</p><p>He managed to roll his shoulders.</p><p>“Farewell, human. I hope you had a good life.”</p><p>Animara flung him into the pit in the center of the room. A moment later, the heavy clang of the door slamming shut filled the air.</p><p>He had no idea how long it would take for this place to get hot enough to burn him alive. He had no desire to find out.</p><p>As he fought against the venom running through his veins, willing his body to <em>get up</em>, a voice he did not expect to hear crackled in his ears.</p><p>“...hear me? Come in. Can you hear me?”</p><p>“Durandal?”</p><p>“The one and only.”</p><p>It had been a long time since he’d heard Durandal sound that relieved.</p><p>“Listen,” he told Durandal. “You need to know-”</p><p>Durandal interrupted him. “I heard everything. I re-established my connection to the camera and microphone during your fight. I only got the communication channel back now.”</p><p>“Well, it’s good to hear from you.” It was. It really, really was.</p><p>“As much as I’d love to bask in your praise, there’s something <em>you</em> need to know: The pattern buffers are broken.”</p><p>“...What?”</p><p>“The Eidi yanked out the pattern buffers’ central circuits when they were plundering my ship.”</p><p>That information settled in the security officer’s chest like lead. “Holy shit.”</p><p>“Yeah. Not to freak you out, but get out of there as soon as possible. If you die, I’ll kill you.”</p><p>Durandal may have been able to see and hear him, but without a full suit of armor and no currently established neural link, he had no control over the security officer’s body. This was going to be his fight and his fight alone.</p><p>For the next minute, adrenaline was going to be his best friend. As he heard the hiss of the furnace activating and felt the metal begin to warm beneath his body, he managed to make his limbs move. He forced himself into a graceless crawl, looking around frantically for a way out. The walls were too high and smooth for him to climb out without a hold or a platform of some sort.</p><p>“On your left,” Durandal said, hurried.</p><p>The security officer turned his head. There was a rectangular section of pit wall that stood out from the rest - it had seams. A panel of some sort.</p><p>It could be nothing. ‘Could be nothing’ was better than ‘definitely nothing,’ at this point.</p><p>He fought against the crushing weight that felt like it was holding his body down. He dragged himself to the left edge of the pit and pushed himself to one knee.</p><p>The wall was uncomfortably hot as he ran his bare fingers over the seams, trying to find a hold. He took a deep breath, grit his teeth, and pulled with all his might.</p><p>The panel came away from the wall only the tiniest bit. That was good enough. The security officer had learned several lessons over the course of his many battles. One of the most prominent was that leverage was equally as important - if not more important - than raw strength.</p><p>He wrapped his hands around the bent corner - now burning hot - and pried it off the furnace wall.</p><p>In his ear, Durandal cheered.</p><p>Very much aware of how little time he had left, the security officer hefted the long, tall section of metal in his hands. He leaned it against the wall at an angle, creating a makeshift ramp. He stepped back and examined his path.</p><p>This would have been a lot easier if he wasn’t still moving like a tranquilized Hunter. Far be it from him to give up now.</p><p>He took another deep breath and stumble-ran up the ramp. As he reached the apex, it collapsed under his weight. His heart in his throat, he jumped.</p><p>The tips of his fingers locked onto the edge of the pit with an iron grip. Durandal was saying something encouraging to him that he couldn’t hear, with what felt like all of his blood rushing past his ears. The process was agonizing, but he managed to pull himself out of his fiery grave.</p><p>After that, pulling the door to the tunnel network open felt like the easiest thing in the world. Seemed like Animara hadn’t waited around to watch him die.</p><p><em>Of course,</em> he thought, bitter and mocking. <em>They don’t like killing people themselves.</em></p><p>Once he’d had a few minutes to gather himself and let the venom wear off, Durandal spoke. “While I hate to ask anything more of you at the moment...”</p><p>The security officer pushed himself off the wall he’d been resting on. He growled, “Don’t worry. I’m not letting those fuckers touch you again.”</p><p>That managed to do the impossible: Render Durandal speechless. Only for a moment, but. Still.</p><p>“Yes,” Durandal finally replied. “That. I’ve been driving them out in what sections I can still control, but there’s still the dead zone by the engines and my core that they’re holing up in. Which, by the way, I’m fairly certain they broke themselves, at this point.”</p><p>“Probably.”</p><p>“So, as much as it pains me to say so...I do need your help.”</p><p>In spite of everything, the security officer had a spring in his step as he emerged into the sunlight aboveground. Ever the stickler about his pride, Durandal. As if he would ever get anything done without the security officer willing to be his man on the ground.</p><p>“What’s the plan?” the security officer asked. He kept an eye out for Eidi as he walked towards the ship. He could only tell which way he was going thanks to a particularly tall building in the settlement that jutted out above the distant hills.</p><p>“Well, you and I are both in bad shape. You’re unarmed and clearly can’t hold your own against a pack of lemurs-”</p><p>“Fuck you. I knew you were gonna get on me about that.”</p><p>“...and I can’t access the parts of this ship that let me, you know. Fly. And shoot things. Staying on this planet will do me no good. So the first order of business is to get the hell out of here. Then we can come back with reinforcements.”</p><p>“So how exactly do you plan to ditch this place if you can’t fly?”</p><p>“That, my friend, is where you come in.”</p><p>“Oh. Wonderful.” Something hit the security officer then. “Wait. You want to...come back here? With reinforcements? For what?” Don’t get him wrong, he loved the Rozinante as much as Durandal did. (Okay, maybe a little less than Durandal did, since it wasn’t his literal body like it was for Durandal.) But it wasn’t worth it to return to a hostile planet to salvage a ship that was likely already stripped of its important parts.</p><p>“For that AI locked underground.” Durandal’s voice lost the playful edge it always seemed to have, just for a moment. “I don’t care who they are. No one deserves that.”</p><p>“Right.” The security officer smiled. “Got it.”</p><p>The security officer took the long way around to the valley the Rozinante had landed in. The last thing he needed was to be seen near the settlement. Durandal continued explaining his plan as he did.</p><p>“In all the chaos you caused, I managed to grab some intel from a data chip one of the scavengers inside me dropped. Apparently, somewhere in that underground labyrinth you were just in, there’s a handful of small fighter ships that the Eidi use to herd unsuspecting passerby like ourselves into their clutches. Mini portable cloaking devices and all. There’s our ticket off this wild ride.”</p><p>The security officer stopped walking. “You said they’re small ships? Shouldn’t I just take one myself, then? I can bring back the S’pht and we can-”</p><p>“Not so fast, buddy. They’re Eidi-built ships. I was looking through the operating manual. These guys are serious about their security. The ships’ engines won’t even turn on unless they’re being operated by an Eidi.”</p><p>He frowned. “So...we’re taking a hostage and making them pilot for us?” That was a terrible idea.</p><p>Durandal laughed. “I like your style, but no. See, there’s a trick: The way a ship is programmed to detect if an Eidi is interacting with it? It checks to see if there are two separate consciousnesses in the one body strapped into the pilot’s seat. If you have that, you’re good to go.”</p><p>“Oh.” He sighed. “Durandal...”</p><p>“Hey. You trust me, right?”</p><p>It took a lot less time than it should have for him to say, “Yeah. Yeah, I do.”</p><p>They didn’t often talk about the security officer’s whole...thing. He’d figured out some time ago that there was something different about him. He didn’t ask for the details, and Durandal didn’t give them unsolicited. All he knew was that normal humans didn’t survive the things he came out of unscathed. And normal humans weren’t capable of letting a metastable AI hitch a ride in their brain until they could find a new ship to transfer him to.</p><p>If it could keep both of them safe, the security officer would do it. Wasn't like he'd never done it before.</p><p>The security officer scoped out the area around the ship’s exterior. Nobody on the outside, but Durandal had said that there were still Eidi hiding out inside him. He wasn’t keen on getting into another fight, after what the last one had led to.</p><p>Durandal must have sensed his trepidation. “Oh!” he said. “That reminds me. I have a gift for you.”</p><p>“Yeah?”</p><p>“The Eidi may have knocked my weapons manufacturer offline. But I was going through my backups today. You know what they haven’t messed with yet? The storage lockers. Including the one with your beloved plasma rifle in it.”</p><p>The security officer couldn’t help it. He grinned.</p><p>“Durandal?”</p><p>“Yes?”</p><p>“I fucking love you.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>Confidence successfully boosted, the security officer boarded the ship and made a beeline for the lockers. The plasma rifle had never felt so good in his hand.</p><p>“As much as I’m enjoying watching you salivate over that thing,” Durandal said, “I’m still waiting at the bus stop here.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah. Be patient.”</p><p>The security officer felt a lot better about things with a weapon in his hand and an AI telling him where to go. Which probably had some psychoanalytical ramifications he didn’t need or want to think about. He managed to get on and off the ship without bringing a horde of angry lemurs down on him, and disembarked with a temporary compressed copy of Durandal on board.</p><p>Uncharacteristically, Durandal’s plan went off without a hitch. Probably to make up for all the hitches that had led up to the formation of the plan in the first place. As the security officer blasted into Idille’s atmosphere, he looked back to see a crowd of aliens gathering to stare at the craft. They didn't seem alarmed - they probably assumed he was one of them, making a routine flight to go net them another set of victims.</p><p>He flipped his middle finger at them. Didn’t matter that they couldn’t see it; it felt good.</p><p>Things were quiet in the cockpit for a while as the security officer flew towards Hephaestia. The only noise came from Durandal’s periodic and sluggish directions. Both of them, he knew, were tired.</p><p>Watching the stars float by through the windshield, the security officer said, “I just realized something.”</p><p>“Is it important?”</p><p>“F’tha is gonna be worried sick about us.”</p><p>There was a second as that sunk in.</p><p>“Drive faster,” Durandal ordered.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I'd like to thank my unnecessary fic-related research for teaching me what <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQPVUd4qmKc">lemur distress calls</a> sound like.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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